22 year old Amanda Knox has been found guilty by an Italian court of the murder of her roommate Merideth Kercher. Knox was in tears following the guilty verdict and was sentenced to serve 26 years in prison. After the judge read the verdict, Italians gathered in the street shouted “26 years!” Some also shouted insults at Knox’s lawyer.

The Seattle woman, who has spent the last two years in an Italian jail cell, was also convicted of a series of additional charges including sexual assault, conspiracy, faking a burglary and slandering a man she falsely implicated in the crime.

Knox’s father, Curt Knox, when asked if they would appeal and fight, replied, “Hell yes.”

Knox’s former boyfriend and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His relatives screamed and broke down hysterically after the sentence was read out.

Although the family of Amanda Knox was disappointed with the verdict, the family of murder victim Meredith Kercher was calmly pleased with the Knox conviction, but added it is “Not a Time for Celebration.”

Family members of Meredith Kercher said Saturday they were satisfied with the verdict that found American Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, guilty of the fatal knifing of the British student.

“Ultimately we are pleased with the decision,” said Lyle Kercher, Meredith Kercher’s brother. “But it was not a moment of celebration. We are here because our sister was brutally murdered.”

Comments

13 Responses to “Amanda Knox Found Guilty of Murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy … Sentenced to 26 Years”

lnichols on
December 6th, 2009 1:20 am

I am floored by the lack of evidence for this outcome…
Then there is Aruba…. Hmmmmm.. very interesting….

Carpe on
December 6th, 2009 1:59 pm

Whatever.

She was guilty. I guess she will be fluent in
Italian by the time she gets out.

Glad to see the “cutie” routine didn’t work out for her.

SteveDinMD on
December 6th, 2009 3:02 pm

Having recently surveyed the evidence from several, seemingly detailed, sources, I have absolutely no idea whether Knox or Solecito were complicit in the crime — which is precisely the point: NO ONE has any idea. There is absolutely ZERO forensic evidence pointing toward their guilt. In the case of Knox, the best the prosecution can do is show that Knox’s DNA was co-mingled with some of Kercher’s (i.e. the victim’s) blood in the bathroom they shared. Big Deal. Knox’s DNA would be all over that bathroom, ensuring that wherever Kercher’s blood might fall, it could well land on a sample of Knox’s DNA, thus comingling the two. “Eyewitness” accounts of their presence at the scene of the crime are equally worthless. They come from a homeless derelict who frequents the neighborhood. Not only did the “witness” not even own a watch, the police couldn’t even establish the victim’s time of death to within a 2 hour window. Moreover, the crime scene is no more than a 5 minute walk from Solecito’s apartment, where he and Knox said they spent the night. Several thousand other people — including the prosecution’s eyewitness — were similarly near to the crime scene and had no less opportunity than Solecito and Knox and no more forensic connection to the crime. The only “evidence” against the couple are conflicting statements they reportedly gave to the police after over-long and abusive interrogations that would have been illegal in the United States. There aren’t even video or audio recordings of those statements proving they were made in the first place. Not only would Knox and Solecito not have been convicted in the U.S., they wouldn’t even have been charged with the crime. All this doesn’t PROVE their innocence, but it strongly points in that direction and completely destroys any rationale for conviction.

This all serves to underscore the one simple truth this case should have taught everyone. When you leave the United States, you check the Constitution at the door and subject yourself to the tender mercies of whatever injustice/incompetence your foreign hosts choose to inflict on you. This is why I avoid travelling overseas and why I would NEVER let any child of mine study abroad or even travel abroad without being accompanied by myself. Finally, with respect to the Kercher family, I’m frankly disappointed. Their loss, terrible as it has been, does not automatically entitle them to cheer on the prosecution of likely guiltless parties. Blind retribution does not advance the cause of good. It certainly does not serve the interests of justice. It merely compounds misery by widening the circle of victimization. Misery, it is said, loves company, and I hope this hasn’t been the Kercher’s motivation. I encourage them to turn from their anger and take a long, hard, RATIONAL look at the totality of the case and reconsider their support for the prosecution. It’s the right thing for them to do and it would be a fitting tribute to the memory of their dear, departed daughter.

NM on
December 6th, 2009 5:49 pm

Six crime scene inspections revealed more than 228 pieces of evidence against the pair, prosecutors have contended. Forensic investigators say traces of Knox’s blood were on the murder weapon with Kercher’s, and that they found footprints matching Knox’s in Meredith’s blood in Meredith’s bedroom. They also testified that they found Sollecito’s DNA on Kercher’s bra clasp.

snip

And those highly publicized cartwheels and yoga exercises she had performed at the police station during questioning in the days following the murder? Just to reduce stress and lighten the mood.

Is the knife really the murder weapon? Did they get the bra clasp weeks later? The cartwheels well.. not smart.. but then again…sitting there for the hours she was.. and she was not being quesitoned at the time.. I am sure that was the last thing on her mind about what was acceptable behavior or not. I know a lot of people her age that have no clue how to act in certain situations.
The stories have all changed.. hers as well as the prosecutors..All I am saying is that the evidence didn’t prove anything to me about her being there…
We don’t know everything.. but it is amazing to me the lack of DNA for this outcome..

SteveDinMD on
December 7th, 2009 9:37 am

To correct poster NM, just about every item of “evidence” and its associated implication cited in his post is incorrect. The footprint, in particular, was NOT in Kercher’s bedroom — locked from the inside — where the young lady was murdered and her body found. The footprint was elsewhere in the apartment and in all likelihood Knox picked up the blood on her feet after walking in the bathroom (where numerous blood spatters were found on the floor) and later tracked it as she moved through the dwelling.

The knife mentioned with Knox’s DNA on the handle was found in her boyfriend’s, Solecito’s, apartment, where she spent considerable time and prepared food. According to the prosecution’s own forensics expert, the knife in question could NOT have delivered Kercher’s wounds.

In fact, the only thing the 228 pieces of so-called forensic “evidence” prove is that Knox was present at some/various indeteminate time/times in both her own apartment and her boyfriend’s apartment, which was already known. Big deal. A team of baboons could have conducted a better analysis.

david r on
December 7th, 2009 11:21 am

I think the Italians got it right. She let that guy Guede into their apartment for a reason. My theory is that Amanda felt threatened and pissed off because her boss Patrick (who she later tried to frame) was about to give her DJ job to Meredith. I think Amanda wanted to terrify Meredith and perhaps put her in a tailspin that would get her out of there so she would not be a threat. She didn’t expect Rudy to kill Meredith. Later, she bought the bleach (after Rafaelle researched it on his computer a la Joran and Casey Anthony) and tried to clean up and stage a cover-up. I understand they found her footprints at the scene with Luminol.

[...] been given a 26 year prison sentence, but there is still quite a bit of controversy over the trial. Was there anti-American bias on the [...]

Scott on
December 8th, 2009 9:31 am

SteveinMD – lol….because you can read means you know what evidence there was and was not against this POS murderer? Give me a break. There was plenty of evidence pointing towards her. This is NOT the US courts BTW in case you forgot. She was tried under a FAIR court of law and was convicted PERIOD.

This was a game that went TOO FAR. It may have been accidental if anything.

Its amazing the MMQB from people who think they know things because they can read like everybody else…LOL…funny….

[...] discusses the Amada Knox Murder Case and the Tiger Woods sex Scandal. Amanda Knox was recently sentenced to 26 years in the murder of Merideth [...]

London (UK) resident on
December 12th, 2009 1:21 am

The sample of DNA obtained fron the blade of the knife found inside the kitchen drawer of Raffaele Sollecito’s apartment is an LCN (Low Copy Number) sample of DNA of less than 100 picograms (less than 100 trillionth of a gram).
Because of their unreliability, LCN DNA samples are not admissible in a US court of law. In the UK, only pieces of evidence that have a high reliability rate are admissible in a court of law and it is therefore fair to say that LCN DNA samples are most likely also not admissible in a UK court of law.
When referring, above, to the DNA sample obtained from the blade of the knife, I wrote ‘is’, but I should have used ‘was’. Because that LCN DNA sample was such a low copy number DNA sample, the first DNA test performed on it destroyed the sample. Under Italian law, DNA evidence on which a second DNA test has not been performed is inadmissible in a court of law.
I don’t know if lead prosecutor Giuliano Magnini presented the aforementioned in the trial, and if so, whether the trial judge accepted it as piece of evidence, but if the answer to both of these questions is yes, then the jury was presented with an important piece of evidence that is under Italian law inadmissible in a court of law, thereby making the verdict for murder in the trial against Amanda Knox invalid.
The conviction for murder against Amanda Knox is unsafe.
Please note: To be honest, to some extent, I don’t really care whether Amanda Knox has ever murdered anyone, or whether she’s ever committed any crime. I do care, however, about knowing that a person who’s in prison as a result of a guilty verdict is there because all of the evidence presented to the jury who returned that verdict was admissible in a court of law at the time of the trial, or at least admissible in that country in a court of law at the time of the trial, and this should apply to everyone.